picture coming soon
This big beautiful boa was surrendered for the usual reasons – too big, not hook trained, owner moving, difficult for handling – pretty common reasons. On the outside she looked pretty healthy in the pictures we saw of her so she’s been waiting a little while to get a spot here.
Unfortunately a thorough physical exam reveals a large necrotic infected tumor in her mouth. This is terrible news. She has cancer. We have her on antibiotics and pain meds already on her first day here and were able to get her mouth cleaned out. After a week or two on meds we will need to surgically remove most of the tumor and send it in for histopathology. Trouble is the location means we will not be able to remove the whole thing and it most certainly will grow back. We will just have to see how fast it regrows. We are so sad! 
Please remember the type of restraint and handling you see in this video is required for evaluation of her cancer and is why the previous owners didn’t know there was anything wrong. If you don’t look in the back of the mouth how would you know? And most snakes don’t readily let you look. We train ours to allow this but it can look a bit weird on video. After we finished she calmly let us put her away in an ICU enclosure where she curled up for a much needed nap inside her hot hide; hopefully feeling much better already with her mouth clean and meds on board.
